


Always in Motion

by virdant



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Jedi, Jedi Culture Respected, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:35:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26697610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/virdant/pseuds/virdant
Summary: Always in motion, the future is.--The Wookiee’s name was Chewbacca, and he was from the future.He laid out the tale carefully: the little that he knew. The war had been all but won. The Separatists had been beaten. And then Palpatine declared himself Emperor, the clone troopers became the Empire’s enforcers, and all that had been once allied with the Jedi were beaten and enslaved.The Chancellor, Chewbacca said, is the Sith. He unfolded himself then, rose to his tallest height. Palpatine is the Sith you are looking for.--Post-Return of the Jedi Chewbacca time-travels to right after the start of the Clone Wars. The future is always in motion.
Relationships: Chewbacca & Obi-Wan Kenobi, Chewbacca & Yoda
Comments: 32
Kudos: 440
Collections: The Temple Archives





	Always in Motion

**Author's Note:**

> we were chatting about time travel and i said i wanted time travel with a different character (not that i don't love obi-wan), and somehow i said chewbacca? and then soft chewie hugs? anyways the working title for this fic was "soft chewie hugs" but sometimes you just have a lot of thoughts about uncertain futures.

The Wookiee that had appeared in the center of the Council Chambers was silent for a long time, just staring at the Jedi Masters with disbelief. Then he roared: first plaintively then, and then with increasing joy and desperation, whirling at each of them in turn until he laid eyes on Master Yoda. Those that spoke Shyriiwook—which was most of the Council—understood his roars as the shocked and disbelieving utterances of a Wookiee transported mysteriously into the middle of the Jedi Council Chambers.

But then the Wookiee stopped before Master Yoda and knelt before him, his incredible height folded into something humble.

Master Yoda, the Wookiee roared. You’re alive. I thought I would never see you again.

Master Yoda reached a small hand out. It seemed to disappear in the thick fur of the Wookiee’s hand. “Know me, you do?”

Yes, the Wookiee said. He did. He remembered Master Yoda, from so many decades ago. He looked similar to his memory, though he remembered Master Yoda as worn and tired, eroded by the relentless stream of war. This Master Yoda had the same wrinkles, the same wise gaze, but he had not been worn down by war. He had yet to fight for years in an unceasing farce of a war.

He did know Master Yoda. And then he looked around the chambers, taking in the Jedi Masters in their prime, and added, I knew of you, and I knew of the Jedi, before you all died.

* * *

The Wookiee’s name was Chewbacca, and he was from the future.

The Jedi fell, he said, sitting on the floor with his legs tucked to his chest. His eyes lingered on Obi-Wan, on Yoda the most. He was comfortable with them, but also tenderly sad. They were murdered.

From the war? The Council asked.

From betrayal, he said.

The troopers turned on the Jedi. Master Yoda went into hiding. Chewbacca thought all the Jedi dead, and then he saw Obi-Wan, old and worn, in a Tatooine cantina, calling himself Ben and pretending to be mad. 

He laid out the tale carefully: the little that he knew. The war had been all but won. The Separatists had been beaten. And then Palpatine declared himself Emperor, the clone troopers became the Empire’s enforcers, and all that had been once allied with the Jedi were beaten and enslaved.

The Chancellor, Chewbacca said, is the Sith. He unfolded himself then, rose to his tallest height. Palpatine is the Sith you are looking for.

* * *

“Tread carefully, we must,” Master Yoda said, after the story. He patted Chewbacca on the hand, again. 

Chewbacca paused, and then, with a cock of the head and an inquisitive roar, opened his arms up.

Yoda stepped into the embrace easily. Chewbacca’s arms folded around him, engulfing him in soft warmth. He let go after a brief moment, and Yoda patted him, again, on the hand. 

“We can’t let the Sith know we’re onto him,” Mace agreed.

“Anakin is good friends with Palpatine,” Obi-Wan mentioned. “Perhaps—”

Chewbacca loudly disagreed.

Obi-Wan frowned. “Chewbacca?” he asked.

This Obi-Wan was not the old man Ben Kenobi who had boarded the Millennium Falcon with an untrained Luke Skywalker. He was not the old man who stood before Darth Vader and let himself be struck down to protect their escape. But he was still the same man—with a persistent faith in the Light, a determination to do what was right.

And after Endor, Luke Skywalker had come back with the body of Darth Vader and explained what old Ben had known when he had walked to his death: that Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker. That the devil who enslaved the Wookiees, the creature that murdered the Jedi younglings in their beds, the Emperor’s enforcer had once been a Jedi and betrayed them all.

Chewbacca was very careful as he selected his words. But no amount of care could stop the quiet horror, the grief, and the very steady deep breath that Obi-Wan took.

He took two steps closer to Obi-Wan and again offered a hug, arms out and waiting patiently for Obi-Wan to take the comfort if he wanted it.

“Thank you, my friend,” Obi-Wan said, and he sounded less weathered by Tatooine, but still the same. He was very small as he stepped into Chewbacca’s embrace, and it was easy for Chewbacca to fold his arms around him, to give him a moment of protection against the realization of the future. “Thank you.”

“This is,” Mace said, “very unsettling.”

When Chewbacca was on Endor, the past had seemed so clear as Luke had laid it out. But now, standing in the Jedi Council Chambers, all of the events he remembered were distant and nebulous. It had been so easy to tell them that Palpatine would declare himself Emperor, would subjugate his people. But the future stretched out before them, uncertain and changing.

It was Master Plo who leaned forward and said, “The future is always changing.”

Chewbacca roared back a question.

“We cannot control it,” he said, steadily. “We can never control the future. We are always swept up in its wake. But we can choose whether or not we float or sink.” He said, “You have given us a chance to swim, when before we sank.”

Chewbacca said that it seemed like so little.

“We are Jedi,” Master Plo said. “We will always choose to stand in the face of adversity. But you have given a chance to do more than weather the assault. You have given us a chance to survive.”

* * *

Chewbacca went with Obi-Wan down to the Archives to meet Master Jocasta Nu. He told her what he told the Council, and the second time he had to tell the story, it was easier to put the words in the right order, to put the events in a line instead of throwing them into a tangled pile to make sense of. Master Nu recorded his words into a Holocron, and then set to work digging into the tangled records of the Senate to confirm Palpatine’s plans.

“Count Dooku said that the Republic was under the control of a Sith.” Obi-Wan’s brow was in a deep furrow. “He was right.”

“Perhaps he’d be willing to offer some evidence next time he makes such statements,” Master Nu retorted sharply. “He certainly should have known better.”

“That’s an idea,” Obi-Wan said thoughtfully. “Chewbacca, how do you feel about visiting my Grandmaster with me?”

Chewbacca had always thought that Luke had crazy ideas, but clearly it was a Jedi thing. But if Obi-Wan needed help to take down the Empire before it could start, then Chewbacca was willing to offer his assistance. He patted his bowcaster and offered his support.

“No,” Obi-Wan reassured him. “We shouldn’t need that form of support at the moment. But certainly, when we confront Palpatine…”

* * *

Count Dooku did not like Chewbacca’s future.

Obi-Wan said, “So you see, Grandmaster, the future that Palpatine intends has no room for you,” and Chewbacca roared very convincingly as he repeated his story again, for the third time.

“But the future is always in motion,” Obi-Wan said. He said, “Help us take down Palpatine, Grandmaster. Be the leader of the Separatists without the Sith.”

Count Dooku looked at Chewbacca, and then back at Obi-Wan. “Master Kenobi,” he said, “Qui-Gon has taught you well.” And then he began to tell his own story.

* * *

The future, the Jedi explained, is always changing.

It’s like a river, full of rapids. Our choices are stones in its path, changing the direction of its flow, but we cannot stop it. We cannot control the river, we can only be carried by it. And it churns, rapidly, as we float along its current.

It is easy to drown in that uncertainty, the Jedi said, as Chewbacca joined them to arrest the Chancellor. It is easy to give in and let yourself be pulled under by the weight of that uncertainty. 

“Let go of your fear,” Mace said, a hand on Chewbacca’s arm. “Acknowledge it, and let it go.”

Chewbacca could feel his weapon in his hand. He didn’t know the details of how the Empire formed, on Kashyyyk as he was. But he knew what Luke had told him about his confrontation on the second Death Star. How the Emperor was strong and ruthless. How he held power at the tips of his fingers.

“Don’t let it control you,” Mace said. “The future is always in motion.”

And Chewbacca was here, a rock in the river, so they could change the current in a different direction.

“Chancellor Palpatine,” Mace said. “You’re under arrest for crimes against the Republic.” And then the Jedi were fighting against a Sith. The Jedi were being pushed back. The Jedi were being cut down and Chewbacca’s people were being enslaved and the Galaxy was full of darkness and fear as the Empire swept across the planets, subjugating everybody who crossed their paths—

Chewbacca was a rock in a river, and he did not let himself drown under his fear as he raised his weapon and fired.

**Author's Note:**

> ways to talk to me:
> 
>   * find me in salt town
>   * Follow me on twitter [@virdant](http://virdant.twitter.com)
>   * [Like & retweet on twitter](https://twitter.com/virdant/status/1310573844705370115)
>   * Comment and kudo below
> 



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